As a close eyewitness to the famous/infamous safe call at home plate during the Case softball game the other night, I feel compelled to throw my three cents (inflation, you know) in.

For the sake of those not familiar with the incident – an incident which has made a lot of Case people really mad – here are the pertinent details.

Case lost its Division 2 South final against Bellingham 1-0. Bellingham scored in the bottom of the fourth inning when Megan Cook scored from second base on a single to right field. Cook was called safe even though the throw home beat her by plenty.

Photographer Mike Borden got a very cool shot of the play. The shot shows catcher Jenna Santerre with her glove at least very close to a sliding Cook well before Cook reaches home plate with her feet. This picture was featured prominently in both our print and online editions. Naturally, some Case supporters insist the picture shows without doubt Cook being out (little rhyme there) and that Case got robbed.

But, is it possible Cook’s fade-away slide allow her to get her feet to the plate before Santerre tagged her?

I was standing right next to Mr. Borden, who years ago was a commercial fisherman (irrelevant but mildly interesting fact). Instead of just watching, I should have been videoing the play but (excuse alert!) because my camera battery was low, I was saving my shots for potential Case highlights. Being off camera, however, allowed my to better observe the play.

My call as I watched the play was “runner out”. But would I bet my life or even my collection of Wiggles autographs that she definitely should have been called out? No.

Let’s analyze the digital evidence.

The picture does not prove any catcher’s glove contact with Cook. The glove is somewhere between Cook’s right (upper) knee and her body, with no way of telling if the knee area has already been tagged or if the glove is touching higher up on the leg, hip, or torso (welcome to Anatomy 101). One can speculate that even if there has not yet been a tag, it will happen before Cook’s feet can get to the plate.

But let’s take a quick trip to the what-if department before sending the umpire to Alcatraz.

What if, as the action continues, Cook’s body drops (law of gravity) and perhaps even twists away from Santerre? Perhaps that could produce a tag high enough on the body for the feet to first get to the plate. An overhead view would best help evaluate that possibility, and the one person Jack Tripp Field with the closest thing to an overhead view that night was the umpire.

Page 2 of 2 - The focus on the fourth-inning safe call at home seemingly has taken almost all attention away from a case close call in the top of the first inning. With runners at second and third and two outs, Case’s Kelsey Pacheco hit a ground ball up the middle. Pacheco and the ball arrived at first base at just about the same time. Pacheco was called out, to the then displeasure of many on the Case side. Had Pacheco been called safe, it may have actually resulted in not just one run, but two.

----- The calls are just going Bellingham High School’s way these days. One day after the softball game, the Bellingham baseball team won its state Division 3 state semifinal over North Reading on a walk-off balk in the eighth inning.

----- The Cove recently made a solid draft choice, grabbing Somerset’s Elroy Lazaro as general manager. Think they got him in the second round. The much anticipated waterfront restaurant and marina is shooting for an opening in mid- to late-July.

----- Fall River Post 464 opened its American Legion Baseball season in style the other night. Brendan Teixeira threw a no-hitter to beat New Bedford.

James Worthy. Seemingly unstoppable at times. And a class act. The first super-quick power forward? Just think, the Lakers had Worthy and Kareem as low-post options on the floor together most of the time. Good grief.

----- Another new list: My all-time favorite games for Boston pro sports teams. No doubt what my first choice is, though it took me decades to get over the pain in order to look at it somewhat objectively.

The 1978 Red Sox-Yankees one-game playoff for the East Division crown. Yankees win 5-4. So many good players performing well that day. Yaz homers. Sox lead through six innings. Bucky Dent. Reggie Jackson and perhaps the most important (yet overlooked) home run of his career. Sox rally in eighth, then threaten in the ninth. Ron Guidry starts. Goose Gossage comes on in the seventh. Lou Pinella vs. the sun. Basically the whole exquisite Sox-Yankees regular-season duel comes down to a Yaz vs. Goose at-bat. A fabulous game. Great theater.